GeenStijl
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Type of site
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Blog |
|---|---|
| Available in | Dutch |
| Owner | Telegraaf Media Groep |
| Slogan(s) | Tendentieus, ongefundeerd en nodeloos kwetsend (Tendentious, unfounded and needlessly offensive) |
| Website | www |
| Alexa rank |
 9,954 (September 2016) |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 10 April 2003 |
GeenStijl is a Dutch blog founded on April 10, 2003. The logos used on its website are the silhouette of a woman brandishing a chainsaw, and a crown within a circle, both in a pink colour, although the crown is green with a black edge when embedded in online videos. In Dutch, the term "geen stijl" (literal translation: no style) is used to describe an act by a person or organisation that lacks style or manners.
GeenStijl often uses a provocative tone when referring to other internet sites and blogs. Commenters on the site are called reaguurders which is a portmanteau of the Dutch verb reageren (meaning reacting/commenting) and the adjective guur (meaning cold/unfriendly). They often react on other people's websites (such as the one of GroenLinks-politician Femke Halsema) or sabotage online polls, skewing the results. GeenStijl is known for its hoaxes. Famously, in March 2005 GeenStijl launched a plan to unseat the second Balkenende cabinet. GeenStijl announced on their website that they would bus people from all over the country to Rotterdam, where one of the cabinet parties was holding a convention. These people could sign up as new party members at the convention, and vote against the party's participation in the cabinet. This hoax created a media uproar; even the respectable NOS Journaal of the public television reported the event.
The blog attracts around 75,000 visitors each day and is one of the top 10 news sites of the Netherlands. On March 17, 2006, the Telegraaf Media Group took a 40% interest in GeenStijl. The editorial team of Dominique Weesie and Ambroos Wiegers both owned 50% of the shares, against 30% after the takeover. The deal was claimed to be worth €2.6 million.
Dominique Weesie said that he saw a market for a tough-talking, politically incorrect blog, when he started GeenStijl in 2003, because existing blogs used language that was too vulgar for the mainstream media. One feature of the blog is the use of intentionally misspelt four-letter words to reduce their shock effect. The site has been criticized for the xenophobic and extreme nature of the comments it allows readers to post. Both the editors and the readers of GeenStijl have invented a wide range of names to refer to immigrants to the Netherlands that are generally considered to be stereotypic and derisive. They also use insulting words for right-wing people they believe to go over the mark though and in recent years inappropriate reader comments are jorissed away (as they call censoring of posts by their mods, the most well known used the nickname "Joris the Lognazi").
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Wikipedia